A beginner's guide to outfitting a new Android tablet.

Know someone who emerged from this holiday season with a new tablet in hand—and they now want your advice on what to do with it? An Android device is only as good as the apps you install, so we've drawn up a listed of some top Android apps for tablet newbies.

The apps we've chosen below are not necessarily new or edgy, but we've field-tested them all and find them solid choices for a wide variety of users wanting to get started with some basic tablet tasks. (See our iPad version as well.)

The Google Play store is not overflowing with powerful image editing applications—there are many more apps that will let you pop clip-art cats or Eiffel Towers into your pictures in lieu of doing a simple crop. Fortunately, the recent Google acquisition Snapseed takes itself seriously enough to forego the word art and gives you the essentials like cropping and adjusting exposure, saturation, contrast, and brightness, as well as tools for selective adjust and an “autocorrect button.” There are a handful of modest photo effects that are not too cheesy.

Snapseed allows you to pull in photos to edit from cloud services like Box or Dropbox, which can be handy if you tablet is stuck with only a front-facing single-megapixel camera. Honorable mention goes to Pixlr Express, which Google recommended on its list of must-have Android apps for 2012. Its controls aren’t quite as granular, but it has more creative options that you can’t find in Snapseed, like the ability to add and control color splashes into black-and-white photos.

Enlarge/ DroidEdit looks like a crunchy text editor, but it can manage more than just coding.

DroidEdit is by far the most flexible of the text editors we tried. It's not much to look at, but the options available inside the app make it suitable for both coding and writing. Line wrap can be turned on and off, you can search and replace text, and there's a "writer mode" that turns off autocorrect and turns on a spell-checker. The app has a number of language syntaxes available (C/C++, C#, CSS, LaTex, Perl, Python, and many more). You can change the color scheme of the app to one of the available defaults or set your own and change the font size, but the font style is fixed. Even if you're not a coder, DroidEdit is still a capable and handy little text editor, on the level of Notepad++ for Windows.

When it comes to managing text files, you can have multiple files open at once, and the app allows you to create new folders in the file management system when saving (a feature that's rarer than it should be). The app also provides access to Android's share menu, so you can easily move you file to places including Evernote, Google Drive, Gmail,and Dropbox.

There are two versions of DroidEdit, one of which is free and runs a small text ad in the bottom right corner of the screen, which annoyingly changes every few seconds. We'd get a facial tic, having to sort-of look at that while writing. Fortunately, the paid version of DroidEdit is only $1.99 and has no ads.

Enlarge/ Google Drive was, ironically, a latecomer to the personal cloud storage scene, but it's edged out old timers like Dropbox.

It's hardly a surprise that Google, what with its cloud-based service proficiency, has come from behind with Drive to unseat older and wiser competitors like Dropbox and Box. The app works particularly well on the tablets, with useful options like the ability to create new Google files (a doc or a spreadsheet) right in the app, or sort contents by date or name.

Because Google Docs is now essentially part and parcel to Drive, the Drive app allows you to both open and edit documents without having to hop over to another app. This isn't a flawless process; for instance, when we uploaded a text file from DroidEdit to Drive, we have let it convert to Docs format to edit in Drive. If we don't, tapping the file in Drive will prompt us to open it in another of the text editing apps we have installed.

Drive comes preinstalled on some tablets, so you don't even have to open the Google Play store to get the best of the cloud storage experiences. If you're looking for a bit more security than Drive can provide, that's SpiderOak's strong suit, though its mobile apps usually leave something to be desired.

Enlarge/ Pocket looks great on Android and handles non-text media with ease.

The duel for our hearts between Pocket and Instapaper is a remarkably close one. Pocket, an evolution of the tool formerly known as Read it Later, just barely edges out Instapaper for its ability to handle images and videos with a little more grace.

If this category were simply for choosing a reading app, this would be a dead heat. Both Instapaper and Pocket allow for resizing and changing fonts, changing color schemes, and have seemingly useless brightness tuners. Pocket's font sizes extend farther down into the smaller sizes; Instapaper offers more font choices, the ability to change line spacing, and more granularity for column width. Both allow users to perform bulk actions on their content; Pocket offers tags for organizing, while Instapaper offers folders.

But Pocket allows users to save videos and images and view them within the app. We don't see ourselves using Pocket for images, but we've saved videos to Instapaper a fair few times, knowing it was little better interface-wise than sending ourselves a link in e-mail. Pocket doesn't cache the video for offline viewing the way both Pocket and Instapaper will create offline versions of articles for reading, but we appreciate not having to redirect the app to its own browser, or relocate to Chrome, just to watch a video.

imo.im (free)

Enlarge/ imo is a great chat client, not least for its breadth of service integration.

Walk away, AIM app. Go home, Facebook Messenger. Imo.im is able to handle both types of these accounts, in addition to Skype, Google Talk, and Steam. There's also an option for Myspace, in case you just can't let go.

When you provide imo with your account information for the above services, it will display each entry along with an on/off switch to let you log in or out. If you're logged into more than one account at a time, imo displays all contacts in one combined tab, while a second tab holds your past chats. The app offers options to log conversations on imo.im.

With some messaging apps in the past, we've had problems where one or the other will hijack messages exclusively, rather than letting it ring through to any locations where you may be logged in. Thankfully, imo.im doesn't do this. Instead, when you receive an initial message, imo.im will display it on the tablet, but won't continue threading the conversation through itself if you answer somewhere else. Your mileage may vary depending on the service, but we haven't had this problem with AIM, GTalk, or Facebook chat.

Enlarge/ None of the streaming music apps for Android look particularly great on tablets.

Andrew Cunningham

To be entirely honest, none of the apps for the major streaming music services have really been optimized for Android tablets—they're made for phones first, and it shows in their sparse layouts and overabundant whitespace. For this category, then, the content is probably more important than the apps themselves, and both Spotify and Rdio give you plenty to listen to (our recent shootout between the two will give you more insight into each service's social features and tie-ins to their respective desktop clients).

Honorable mention: The downside to both Spotify and Rdio is that, after your trial period has expired, each will want $9.99 a month to grant you access to the service on your phones and tablets. We think that for most people that is a price worth paying, but if you want something a little more freePandora is still a good choice if you don't mind the advertisements.

There are plenty of touchscreen games we could recommend here, but rather than talking up Fruit Ninja or some other staple we'll be kicking it old school with one of those timeless time-wasters: Solitaire.

Of the many, many versions of this game available in the Google Play store, MobilityWare's Solitaire is the best—it's clean, simple, and optimized for tablet screens in a way that some of the other available versions aren't. The biggest drawback is probably the full-screen ads that run in between games, especially since there's no in-app purchase or separate version of the app that can be used to disable them. They don't ruin the experience, but they are annoying.

Honorable mention: It's an unfortunate fact that Android's game library still lags behind the iTunes Store—if a developer can only target one mobile OS they generally choose Apple's, and the games that do appear on multiple platforms often appear on the iPad or iPhone first.

The situation is slowly improving, though. One of the most recent iOS ports to hit Google Play is the $4.99 Eufloria HD, a laid-back take on the real-time strategy game genre, but if you're looking for something quicker to pick up and play there's still nothing better than Halfbrick's Jetpack Joyride.

Enlarge/ Google Chrome is the browser to beat if you're running Android 4.0 or better.

Andrew Cunningham

The Nexus tablets include Google Chrome as their default browser, and for good reason: it's a great browser that renders pages accurately, sticks to a vigorous update schedule, and can sync bookmarks, open tabs, and other information with its desktop counterparts. If you've got a non-Nexus tablet, you can easily switch from the stock browser to Chrome by downloading it from Google Play (as long as your tablet is running Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean, anyway).

Honorable mention: Firefox for Android is also solid contender, and if you use Firefox on the desktop it will also sync your data. Mozilla is also running some interesting experiments in the beta versions of the browser, one of which is an HTML5-focused app store.

Enlarge/ AccuWeather for Android strikes a nice balance between readability and information density.

Andrew Cunningham

Traveling in the winter can make you acutely aware of the weather in a way that you aren't in your day-to-day life, and apps that tell you whether you can weather that weather are of the essence.

The one we like best on a tablet's screen is the free ad-supported app from AccuWeather.com. It's got a nice, big, readable interface, and it's easy to swipe or tap a button to pull up hourly or 15-day forecasts, maps, and videos. The animations aren't as smooth as they might be, but the fact that the app has been updated specifically for 7-inch and 10-inch screens puts it ahead of the rest of the pack. Notifications for severe weather and other configurable alerts are also available, as are a couple of different widget sizes can be set to give you information at a glance.

As in the music app discussion, the content available through an e-book app is a very important part of the discussion. Unlike music apps, however, you're going to spend a lot of time in these apps actually reading books, and a poorly-optimized tablet app is harder to forgive.

In both of these respects, Amazon's Kindle app has the edge. The app itself has improved greatly since we looked at it in our Nexus 7 review, in large part because Amazon added new, smaller font options that make books look much better on 7-inch and 10-inch tablet screens. It goes without saying that the size of Amazon's e-book library remains unmatched, at least if you can stomach the DRM.

The Android app still lacks a couple of features available in iOS and on the Kindle Fire—the X-Ray feature, which allows you to look through a book to see all of the occurrences of certain words and names, is probably the most glaring omission—but reading Kindle books on an Android tablet is a much better experience now than it was even a couple of months ago.

69 Reader Comments

Pocket is formerly known as Read It Later, and Readability is another choice for delayed reading. If you are using multiple OSes (Android, iOS, Mac and Windows) you will love Pocket because it has great support on all of the above - plus useful Chrome extensions (Posthoc and Check It Later are my favs). Seen from this angle, Instapaper is far behind Pocket.

Did something get confused in editing? AFAIK, Pocket is derived from Read-It-Later, not Readability; Readability is still around. And perhaps haven't figured out how, but Pocket doesn't reformat articles like Readability - it just caches them for offline reading.Readability and Instapaper are similar apps.

If you want to use Flash Video you need either the Dolphin browser or Firefox Beta (no, Opera doesn't support it either ).

Opera browser is available on Android, and for me was the obvious choice as the best browser. It allows itself to spoof as a desktop browser, so you avoid those awful mobile sites. Also you can enable Opera Turbo to conserve bandwidth and load pages faster.

Google Chrome might support these features as well of course, I never checked as I prefer Opera.

And perhaps haven't figured out how, but Pocket doesn't reformat articles like Readability - it just caches them for offline reading.Readability and Instapaper are similar apps.

Most items I've added to it have an article view, which is pretty much just the text. However, some things (like youtube videos, for obvious reason) don't support it, and others have some css rules or something that prevents some of the text from showing up in article view.

Pocket is formerly known as Read It Later, and Readability is another choice for delayed reading. If you are using multiple OSes (Android, iOS, Mac and Windows) you will love Pocket because it has great support on all of the above - plus useful Chrome extensions (Posthoc and Check It Later are my favs). Seen from this angle, Instapaper is far behind Pocket.

Our mistake on the Pocket / Read it Later / Readability thing. Thanks for the heads up!

Or, for $5 a month to remove the ads that are very few and far between (and up the stream quality, of course), the 110 or so channels you get through the Digitally Imported Radio, Jazz Internet Radio, and SKY.FM Internet Radio apps (all by the same company and the sub pays for all three) are great if you don't need anything more specific than genre streams (and don't seem to be slurping all your info to sell to marketers, either). They also have Web interfaces, too, of course (sky.fm, di.fm, and jazzradio.com) for if you want to set up your streams through your preferred audio program on the desktop or whatever.

And if you're too stingy to pay out $5 a month and don't mind a maximum of 64kbps AAC (which still sounds great, IMHO, but I'm no audiophile), the free service is completely no-pressure (I only subbed 'cos, at 4-5 hours a day, I was starting to feel guilty all on my own ).

In regards to the rad.io/Spotify/Pandora paid music services (pandora is unbearably obnoxious without pandora one)-- you also have the option of the 10,000 or so Internet radio stations and the apps that make navigating, discovering, and recording them simple and useful. Might I recommend TuneIn radio as an alternative for free/$.99? I'll admit the I haven't tried the android tablet version, but the small screen android and iOS versions are fantastic.

I imagine there are a million other radio apps for anyone that doesn't like TuneIn.

Very surprised that Moon+ Reader wasn't mentioned for ebook readers. Been using it for over a year, supports every major format (epub, pdf, mobi, chm, cbr, cbz, umd, fb2, txt, html, rar, zip), has built-in net library (and OPDS support), Dropbox integration, excellent library support, and tons of configuration options. It basically replaced 3-4 apps I was using all at once: one to manage my library and transfer my books, one to read PDF, one to read EPUB/MOBI, and one to read CBR/CBZ. The various themes make it gorgeous on my Nexus 7, but it even works perfectly on my ol' Nexus One.

Snapseed is an excellent choice as well. Just discovered it last week, and have been thoroughly enjoying its simple UI matched with complex options.

I still use Firefox for Android (and desktop), mostly for the sync ability. I know Chrome does this too, but I like FF and I'm getting to old and crotchety to change now.

Only issue I have with it is that it seems to bog down on my Transformer Infinity. No idea why, other than maybe a plugin issue. Not having the same issue on my Note.

I was in the same place, FF for the desktop and FF on the phone/tablet but it kept getting slower on the phone/tablet so I made the switch to Chrome... it's worth the pain of doing, if you have a spare afternoon, do it.

photoshop touch has so few of the capabilities of the original version that it's really unfair that it shares the name. While it allows some small amount of photo editing, it doesn't have any of the abilities required to create original work.

The autodesk sketchbook pro is a much better program for actually creating things from scratch. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be able to tell the difference between the side of my hand and my stylus which is frustrating and doesn't seem to be touch sensitive, or not to any significant degree. I can use it to draw and make a few thing, but it isn't a full on mobile creative system by any means.

I'm still waiting for my one true love, and it doesn't at the moment exist it seems.

Despite owning the premium version of Accuweather (picked it up cheap during a sale), I refuse to have it installed because it keeps a process running in the background that can't be killed. Even if you disable notifications/alerts, there's that service running in the background.

I'll admit to being picky about what apps I use/run, but unkillable background processes (when they're unnecessary) are generally an immediate disqualifier for any app, no matter how useful it is.

I think this may be overstating it somewhat. I was very excited when I first got a fancy smartphone because of all the apps I'd be installing, but once the honeymoon was over, there aren't any installed apps that I use on a regular basis (except maybe facebook).

I got a Nexus 7 for Christmas, and after trying Chrome, Opera and Firefox I've gone with Firefox. The clincher? I got tired of opening a new tab when trying to actually close one - the 'close tab' 'x' is too small and too close to the 'new tab' button.

I always check app permissions before downloading, because some want access to more than they need. For instance Moon+ Reader and Radaee PDF Reader, both 4-star apps, want access to phone call info. Makes me wonder what they do with it.

The stock Jellybean browser is WAY better and faster than chrome, and is syncable.Also the Nook app is so much nicer than the Kindle (although if you're looking for customisability you can't beat Moon+ Reader.)

The (Kindle) Android app still lacks a couple of features available in iOS

Like basic things like page flip animations. This was one of those "oh look" features the Kindle app was using to encourage people to use their app and sell more eBooks, but they never ported it over to Android. In the end, the Kindle for Android is a poor iOS port that glaringly shows.

The stock Jellybean browser is WAY better and faster than chrome, and is syncable.Also the Nook app is so much nicer than the Kindle (although if you're looking for customisability you can't beat Moon+ Reader.)

Not to mention in JB they added some goodies like "Always request desktop site." I wish they threw that into Android Chrome.

The (Kindle) Android app still lacks a couple of features available in iOS

Like basic things like page flip animations. This was one of those "oh look" features the Kindle app was using to encourage people to use their app and sell more eBooks, but they never ported it over to Android. In the end, the Kindle for Android is a poor iOS port that glaringly shows.

Idk about other features it's missing but I for one am happy there are no page flip animations in the app, those animations are just annoying peacocking that occurs between pages.

I don't understand exactly why you recommend AccuWeather as a tablet application. Yes, it works on a tablet, but in my view it is an app clearly built for phones: It does not make good use of the available screen estate (everything is just bigger), and the application is always shown in portrait mode. Even when I have the keyboard docked to my tablet, the application is shown rotated 90°, and it refuses to work in landscape mode. In my opinion, it is not a good example for how things are supposed to work on tablets - certainly not a "must have".

For older phones, or just for plain data consumption saving, Opera Mini is still the best browser. if you just want to search for a quick info or picture on the internet, use it. Its amazing how much battery and data savings you can gain using this.

The stock Jellybean browser is WAY better and faster than chrome, and is syncable.Also the Nook app is so much nicer than the Kindle (although if you're looking for customisability you can't beat Moon+ Reader.)

That's the part I don't get. They say it is the Chrome browser, but every time I use 4.1 it is the usual Android browser UI, and the speed I like with it.

The (Kindle) Android app still lacks a couple of features available in iOS

Like basic things like page flip animations. This was one of those "oh look" features the Kindle app was using to encourage people to use their app and sell more eBooks, but they never ported it over to Android. In the end, the Kindle for Android is a poor iOS port that glaringly shows.

Idk about other features it's missing but I for one am happy there are no page flip animations in the app, those animations are just annoying peacocking that occurs between pages.

By not it, it gave the app a quick and dirty feel to it. And by making sure they updated it on iOS for retina within a very short time span shows they still feel more like catering to iOS (even though Apple has been very openly hostile to them).

The stock Jellybean browser is WAY better and faster than chrome, and is syncable.Also the Nook app is so much nicer than the Kindle (although if you're looking for customisability you can't beat Moon+ Reader.)

Not to mention in JB they added some goodies like "Always request desktop site." I wish they threw that into Android Chrome.

I actually really like the quick gestures as well. It's pretty disappointing the hoops you have to jump through to get the old "stock" browser on new nexus/JB devices. It was faster, but the real clincher for me is a full screen mode. The old stock browser did that as well, and now I'm "stuck" with chrome.

I often end up using dolphin with their new "jetpack" html5 renderer. It is pretty quick, and does full screen, but no quick gestures - the dolphin gesture system is totally different and more cumbersome.

Dolphin browser is great. I don't know why it wasn't mentioned. Although my preference is Firefox and Chrome on the desktop, I've found that only Dolphin on Android provides a browser experience that is easy to use, logical and efficient.

Not a fan on any of those apps. Meh. Here's my list, most are free:* Titanium Backup - if you cannot backup, then you shouldn't have it.* KeePassDroid - KeePassX and KeePass v1.x compatible password manager* K-9 Mail - GPG support sold me. Do you really want the largest advertising company in the world having access to your email?* Terminal IDE - sometimes I need a great terminal and ssh client* Dolphin Browser - 2 browers are needed; one for fun and one for work.* XMBC Remote - seaching for media is easier from android* Beautiful Widgets - Clocks, Alarms, Weather all on the HOME screen.* QuickPic - the builtin Gallery app sucks; if it doesn't sort by name, it is workthless* NAVFree USA/World - navigation + GPS without using any data; OSM data is used. Tablets don't usually have data plans. Duh.* FBReader - screw DRM ebooks* Flight Track - best $0.10 I've spent. Just seeing the history for a specific flight is worth it.* FileExpert - supports sftp/scp connections.* AnkiDroid - flashcard memorization tool with thousands of pre-built decks on almost any subject.* ScanToPDF - fantastic for scanning work recipts into PDFs and emailing.* Kitchen Timer - we all need a count-down timer app.* DroidWall - firewall for your device.* Permissions - disable permissions on a per-app basis. Why do all those apps need to read our contacts?* SeriesGuide - never miss a TV show (or guilty pleasure)

Andrew Cunningham / Andrew has a B.A. in Classics from Kenyon College and has over five years of experience in IT. His work has appeared on Charge Shot!!! and AnandTech, and he records a weekly book podcast called Overdue.